Digital Marketing | Digital Strategy | This Digital World

Facebook Fan Growth for RealPlayer

This is an article I wrote for the RealNetworks intranet this week - highlighting the growth to 100,000 plus Facebook fans:

We hit a new milestone this week with our RealPlayer social media efforts – over 100,000 Facebook fans!

The graph below shows the growth in fans/likes since we launched the RealPlayer Facebook page in November 2009.  The spike that you see in March 2010 coincides with us encouraging users to become a fan on Facebook after they had installed the RealPlayer.

 
 

Facebook has been an important tool in our customer communication strategy over the past 12 months. Earlier this year, we moved some our customer support team to active Facebook duty  and encouraged our RealPlayer users to post questions, issues or general rants about the product on the RealPlayer page. 

With 24/7 monitoring, we are able to respond quickly to posts and point users to the appropriate help sections on our website.  It has done wonders for our transparency as a business, since everyone can see how well we are dealing with customer comments, both good and bad.

We also use the Facebook page to poll fans about new feature ideas and gauge their feedback on existing features.  Our Facebook fans even got a taste of the new RealPlayer via a special download link two days before we released the product to the public.

You can see from the graph below that the fan base is more heavily male, in line with our overall RealPlayer user base and is much younger than our traditional RealPlayer user.  This is important as we continue to extend our user base to younger audiences that have never previously needed or wanted to download RealPlayer.

 

Growing our Facebook users will continue to be a focus as we develop deeper relationships with our customers and engage them across many different platforms.  If you like RealPlayer but haven’t yet ‘liked’ our RealPlayer Facebook page, then please visit the page and join the 100,000+ strong community already there.

Facebook is just part of a larger social media presence that includes our RealNetworks blog, our YouTube channel and Twitter presence.

Facebook is a Great Customer Support Tool

 

 

Many businesses are now using Facebook as a valuable way to solve their customers' product questions and problems.

RealNetworks's flagship application, RealPlayer, is a great example of how the company interacts with its users from all over the world, solving problems and saving money into the bargain.

Every time someone picks up the phone and speaks to an advisor, it costs the business money.  By directing users of its free RealPlayer application to the Facebook page, Real has been able to save tens of thousands of dollars and provide feedback and support in an environment that the user is comfortable with.

Customer support on Facebook also provides a level of transparency that has helped bolster the brand value.  A problem shared is a problem solved, so the saying goes. Well by posting a problem, which others may have, and seeing the company respond quickly and (usually) to the satisfaction of the user, does wonders for reputation.

Of course it still costs money to provide 24/7 support via Facebook, but online responses are more cost effective, more transparent and often faster, so it ends up being a win win for both the business and the customer.

Social Networking Now the Most Popular Past-time in the UK

Spending hours looking at your favourite social network is now the most popular past-time for Brits, according to Irish social media experts Simply Zesty.

The agency just published an excellent short video, which you can watch below, detailing the social networking habits of the UK population.

I pulled out some key stats which reinforce why businesses must start taking the social networking evolution seriously:

85% of the population are now online and 60% of them read blogs
- do you know the most influencial bloggers in your line of work?  You should be establishing relationships with them, feeding them information and generally keeping them happy!

64% of the population have a social network profile
- does your business?

78% use the Internet to research products and services before buying
70% of people online trust reviews from strangers and 90% trust reviews from friends
- this means two things:
 
1. You need to be aware of what people are writing about your product or establishment and if necessary take measures to correct it.
 
2. You need to establish social relationships with your existing customers through Facebook and Twitter.  Offer your fans special deals, show them the love. They are your biggest ambassadors.

David Cameron, Facebook and Social Research

 The UK government today released a video on YouTube, showing David Cameron chatting with Mark Zuckerberg about using Facebook to engage the UK population on policy change.

I take my proverbial hat off to Cameron; not only is he putting himself and his government in the place where a large proportion of his voters hang out (there are 26 million UK Facebook users) but through the Democracy UK initiative, it seems like he might actually care about what the voters want and think.

Engaging the public, asking their opinions on how to spend the billions he has at his disposal and doing it in a way that is natural and easy for people makes a lot of sense.

Interestingly Cameron remarks towards the end of the video, "If Government wants to engage people we often spend millions, sometimes billions...this is a way to do it for free!"

The potential for businesses to use Facebook as a research platform is huge and it's simple.  Announce a new product feature and ask for feedback; ask your users what they want to see next; ask them what's not so great about your product or service. The possibilities are endless, the upsides huge.

Remember there are also downsides.  The users that become a fan of your Facebook page will be your most vocal customers.  If they are spending the time to leave comments that will help you make a better product and ultimately more money, then they expect to be listened to.  They expect to get timely feedback.  They will criticize and expect you to deal with it in a level-headed way.  Learning how to communicate effectively with your customers/supporters through Facebook takes time and is not easy.  But if you are respectful of them, treat them like you would expect to be treated yourself and understand the power of Facebook as a research tool, you will be able to:
1. Do research for free
2. Make a better product/service
3. Change your 'brand' perceptions for the better
4. Create more loyal users

That's what Cameron is hoping to do with this initiative and I wish him every success.

You can watch the video below: